The following is an excerpt from Jason Ferruggia’s new 3XM Triple Threat Muscle program. Jason’s new workout he’s spent the last two years working on and testing is all about building the ultimate athletic physique. To start a surge of muscle growth, build strength and explosive power visit his site for more tips at http://www.3xmTripleThreatMuscle.com

Chapter 3: Accumulation & Intensification

I first learned about Accumulation and Intensification (or Adaptation) many years ago from the great Olympic sprint coach, Charlie Francis, and have long since adapted and applied it to the training of normal guys looking to get bigger and stronger.

Accumulation and Intensification involves alternating between phases of higher volume (more sets and reps, less weight and shorter rest periods) and frequency, with phases of higher intensity (less sets and reps, heavier weight and longer rest periods) and less frequency. For example, you might do a four week block of ten to twelve reps with one minute rest intervals followed by a three to four week block of four to six reps with two minutes rest. The Accumulation phase often focuses more on sarcoplasmic/ slow twitch hypertrophy and the Intensification phase focuses more on myofibrillar/ fast twitch hypertrophy.

The way I have set up the Accumulation and Intensification phases in Triple Threat Muscle is that a block of full body training is followed immediately by a block of upper/lower splits. The full body workouts serve as the Accumulation phase and the upper/lower workouts serve as the Intensification phase.

In the Accumulation phase you are training each muscle group every 48 hours with a decent amount of volume. The body responds by building up a reserve of adaptive energies. After three to four weeks the volume and frequency will get to be too much to handle and overtraining could be right around the corner.

However, when you cut this off just before it happens and switch to an upper/lower phase (still training three days per week) the drastic reduction in training frequency and volume leads to massive gains because of the extra recovery ability you built up during the full body workout phase. You go from training each muscle group directly three times per week to now hitting it directly once every five days. This is a HUGE difference and the body responds incredibly well to the reduced volume and frequency by building size and strength rapidly during this phase.

Eventually you may burn out on this and may even start to detrain because your training frequency may be too low. How fast it takes this to happen is individual and is based on a number of factors. But when it does, and hopefully before it actually happens, you switch back to full body workouts to spark new gains and kick start the whole cycle all over again with the increased volume and frequency. This plan prevents you from overtraining or undertraining, and keeps you in the optimal training zone at all times. It’s the best of both worlds.